World of Nintendo

20 happenings from round the dark side of the Nintendo moon

Proof that you don’t have to be handy with a paintbrush, a sewing kit, a craft knife or a soldering iron in order to make your mark on the Nintendo world: they’re training surgeons using a copy of Kororinpa. Address all malpractice correspondence to Satoru Iwata, Nintendo Company Limited, Tokyo. Next up: tattoo artists and Mario Paint.

1) Bent Pikachu

Kaseo describes himself as a ‘circuit bender’, which we think is something to do with making noisy art from unlikely bits of electronics. Among the many things he’s bent in the past, these Pikachus can be hooked up to play strange sounds and funky tunes, all done by modifying and strangulating their electric voice boxes. Bizarre and cool.We want one!

2) Better surgery by Wii

Doctors at a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, have been training in keyhole surgery using amodified Wii remoteand the game Kororinpa. Apparently it’s great for developing the fine motor skills necessary in delicate operations, and surgeons have reported a 50% rise in their skills (or high scores) since they started playing the game. Also, it’s a lot cheaper than a real surgical simulator.

3) Arty DS Painting

Here’s aslick stencil jobto spruce up a plain old DS. The artist suggests using the kind of paint you get for painting model cars and finishing with a hard, clear topcoat to stop the design chipping. Probably obvious, but we’d never thought of that. Might actually give this a try some time.

4) For fussy eaters

Some children won’t touch their food if it isn’t just so, if their peas and potatoes aren’t arranged in the shape of a smiley face. And if there’s a blob of ketchup in the wrong spot… In our day, the fastest cure for faddy eating was the hairy side of daddy’s hand. In today’s litigious world, where parents live in fear of being sued by their spoiled offspring, perhaps the answer is to spend hours making sushi into the shape of Pokémans. All these and more atYukinko’s Kitchen.